Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Rejected Because Of Who He Was Known To Be

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Salvation cannot be bought, at the same time, it is not free. Accepting Jesus brings responsibilities. Correction by Jesus (his authority) was rejected by the leadership, even as it is to this day. The leaders understood Jesus expectation and realized the identity of the Son of God. The mistake of their rejection did not lead to the path of humility and repentance - falling on the rock. Rather, they sought to destroy the son of the Lord of the vineyard. Jesus did not back down. They understood the message. They rejected their LORD.***95: Jesus Tells Three Parables of WarningMatthew 21:28-22:14; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19 The Two SonsRefusing to tell the chief priests, scribes, and elders the source of his authority, Jesus told a parable to his questioners, saying:            “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ and went not. Which of the two did the will of his father?”            The chief priests, scribes, and elders answered Jesus, saying:            “The first.”            Jesus replied:            “Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not. But the publicans and the harlots believed him. And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.” The Vineyard And The Husbandmen            Then Jesus told another parable to the chief priests, scribes, and elders, saying:            “Hear another parable: ‘There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that he might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, “They will reverence my son.” But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.’ When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?”            The scribes, chief priests, and elders replied:            “He will miserably destroy the wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”            Jesus said to them:            “Did ye never read in the scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say unto you, ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’ And whosoever...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris your host. And we are into the last years, or last days, of Jesus Christ's life. When he started really torquing off a few folks. And he is finding himself constantly being plotted against. And his death is imminent, and this has not been a pleasant thought to have

in the forefront of our mind as we read. He's not going to last much longer, especially if he continues talking like he has been talking. He just got finished telling some Pharisees that was questioning him about his authority that you know, you've got other problems other than this. You've got some serious things to deal with. The fact is that just because you started right does not mean you're ending right.

And even though, as we were ending the show last time, I was telling you that they got a do-over. The Gentiles, they weren't following the Lord. The nations of the world didn't really care about the things of God. They had an opportunity to repent and took it. The Jews were following God, and they could have stayed with it. That's chance number one. Number two is they could have said, oh, my goodness, we're doing this wrong,

and repent and do the right thing. He said, you didn't take either chance. You just didn't. And evidently, in his understanding of baseball, you get two strikes. Alright, so he's going to tell the story of the vineyard and the husbandman. Then Jesus told another parable to the chief priests and scribes and elders. These are important things to know, by the way. Sometimes these

parables are spoken to his disciples. Sometimes to the world at large. Sometimes they're spoken to the religious leadership. And that's the case here. He says, hear another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and let it out to husband, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen,

and went into a far country. And when the husbandmen, I'm sorry, and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. Now here it is again Israel and the expectation of fruits. Now you can bet his disciples were thinking as he was telling the story about what

just happened to that fig tree. I don't know. Did they make the connection? I can't tell you but i sure can because you know when he says behold your house is left unto you desolate all i could see was that fig tree and so he wanted to receive the fruits of his vineyard. And the husbandman took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. And he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto him his

son, saying, they'll reverence my son. Boy, was he ever wrong. And it ends up costing him the life of his son. Why? They said, oh, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and we can seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him, cast him out of the vineyard. Remember when Jesus

says arise let us go hence. It's not it's not right that. It's not meet that. It's just shouldn't happen that a prophet would be persecuted, slain outside of Jerusalem. He was slain outside of Jerusalem. And here we see that he was cast out of the vineyard. You know, these things, I don't know,

do they trigger things in you when you read them? Do you hear that? Does it flip some switch in you? I think this idea of being cast out is a part of, you know, God's problem with the whole thing. Jesus didn't die in a car wreck. He was thrown out of the vineyard and slain. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,

here's a great question. All right, I just got finished telling you that story. All of his servants being slain, he decides to send his son. They do his son that way or worse. When the husband, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, when the owner of the vineyard comes, when the Lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen?

Oh, boy. You know, oh boy you know i don't think they understood exactly you know the parallels the the symbology of what jesus was saying at this point because they answered honestly i'm telling you i think they i think they quivered a little bit i think they shook a little bit i think they thought about the fact that, oh my goodness, when the owner of the vineyard comes back, after all these people have been killed and run off

and their bodies left to the birds, what's he going to do? He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let his vineyard out to other husbandmen, which shall give him the fruit in their season. I think a little silence ensued, a little pregnant pause, and Jesus looked up at them and looked from face to face to face to face and thinking, is it occurring to you yet? Look from face to face to face to face.

And thinking, is it occurring to you yet? He says, did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes you ever read that therefore I say unto you the kingdom of God shall from you. Wow, this is just really heavy. Therefore, I say unto you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth

faith. People that believe in God, people that believe in Jesus. Faith only salvation? No, the ones that bring forth fruit. It's the ones that are doing something. That's who is going to take over your seats. Listen, it's the feast, isn't it? It's that feast that he spreads before the people

and says, you know know my friends won't come i need somebody to come and attend my feast come and attend my feast and he populates that table with people that are unsavory that's us this the city is going to be absolutely raised to the ground not one stone left upon another. The kingdom of God is going to be taken from you and given to other nations. Oh, this was horrible. They're not going to tolerate this. Jesus says, look, let me tell you let me just give you a little cliche to think about in the middle of the night.

You are going to encounter the stone. I am the stone. Now, the best way for you to encounter this stone is for you to fall upon it. Oh, you're going to be broken. Yeah, you're going to lose some things and, you know, it's going to be painful. You're going to have to repent.

You're going to have to change. Yeah, you can't stay the way you are. You are going to have to fall upon this stone. Oh, there's another choice. There's another encounter of this stone. Well, let me just read it to you. He says, And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.

But upon whomsoever it shall fall, it'll grind him to powder. You will encounter me. You can do that now, or you can do that then. But you will encounter me. Man, he's making this very clear. When the chief priests and the scribes and the elders and the Pharisees heard this, they knew Jesus had spoken regarding them.

They would, I'm sorry, I'm laughing. I'm just, I'm thinking, duh. But you have to understand that you're dealing with people that really don't have a whole lot of spiritual understanding. But it occurred to them, he's speaking regarding us. They would have attacked him, but they feared the multitude who considered Jesus a prophet. Levin saves the day again

because they're concerned about what people think of them. They didn't act on the thing in them that had their hearts boiling and their minds reeling and their fists clenched and their teeth grit. They were going to attack him. But all of a sudden they caught themselves and thought, we can't do this in public. Jesus told them another parable. Hey, Gentiles, you're mentioned in here,

so you might want to pay attention. Jesus told another parable saying, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king that made a marriage for his son. And he sent forth his servants and called them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again, he sent forth his servants and called them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatling are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage. But they made light of it it and they went their ways one to his farm

another to his merchandise and the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them but when the king heard thereof he was wroth and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers

and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden are not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage so those servants went out into the highways

and gathered together all as many as they found both good and bad and the wedding was furnished with guests okay there it is again we have the people who were invited was furnished with guests. Okay. There it is again. We have the people who were invited, his family, his friends,

his chosen nation, his chosen people, and they made light of it. They didn't come. So he says, go get those worse than them. This is the other nations, friend. This is us. This is us. He has bid us to the wedding, to sit in chairs that were not meant for us. Now, this continues. Those of you who are all tickled right now that Jesus made, that the Lord God made provision for us through the rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees

and the Sadducees, the religious leadership, and Judaism in general. And oh, thank you, Jesus, that he's allowed us to come. You know what? Your obligations aren't over here. It says, and the wedding was furnished with guests and when the king came in to see the guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment and he saith unto him friend how came us now hither not having on a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

When I first read this, I thought, now wait a minute, okay, so the guy can't afford nice clothes. Right? Have you thought that? He can't afford good clothes, nice clothes. He doesn't have a wedding garment. You're going to punish this guy? Because he doesn't dress as nicely as the rest of your guests? Really? Is that fair? Is as the rest of your guests? Really?

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They're yours for the asking. He saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou hither not having on a wedding garment? And he was speechless. When I first read this, I thought, Now wait a minute. Okay, so the guy can't afford nice clothes. Right? Have you thought that? He can't afford good clothes, nice clothes.

He doesn't have a wedding garment. You're going to punish this guy? Because he doesn't dress as nicely as the rest of your guests? Really? Is that fair is that the right thing to do yeah so you know what this is it's just it's western mentality can i let me put this in into the western mindset if i can't okay your daughter's getting married you know she's gonna have a big wedding what What does she do? She's going to have 11 bridesmaids. Oh, that's wonderful. You know, dad's over there and looking through his wallet

and thinking, wow, this is going to cost a bunch. Why? Why is it going to cost a bunch? Because you got to buy all those bridesmaids dresses. Yeah. Yeah. It's all part of the wedding costume see that's a wedding garment and if you invite these ladies to be your bridesmaids you send them the dress which is designed so that you will be uglier than the bride but that's that's a different story um some of you ladies are nodding the men the best man and his little entourage is going to follow him to the altar all those guys they're all renting tuxedos for these people because why that's a wedding garment i don't know if you've ever seen it somewhere in my mind is burned an image a wedding picture i don't know where it was or who

it was but it's in there and every time i talk about this i think of this picture because it's so it so perfectly lays out this this situation they were going to have a wedding picture you know mom and dad and the brides and the bridesmaids and all the people involved in the wedding they're all lined up there at the altar and the flowers and everything. And so they snap this picture. And it gets put into a big wide frame. And, you know, somebody paid too much for it.

And there it hangs on the wall. And you're looking at it and you're thinking, who's that? And you're pointing at a guy that is wearing levi's oh he's uh he's one of the one of the the groom's gentlemen that that attended the wedding well he doesn't have a tux well we sent him one well you. Somebody needed a dad like this to walk up to that guy and say,

friend, what are you doing here without a wedding garment? Get out of here. You're not going to be in the picture. You're not going to be in the wedding. Go. That's how it should have been handled. But it wasn't. They didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

So now they have this wedding picture that will last for eternity with this doofus standing in line with Levi's on. Everybody else wearing a tux. Everybody else looked great. But you don't want to hurt people's feelings. But they needed a guy like this.

So I say all that to say that I had to change my mind about this because it wasn't the matter that the fellow couldn't afford a nice pair of clothes. It was that he didn't wear what was provided him. Now, why do you come in here without a wedding garment? He was speechless. Then he said he was speechless probably because he had his mouth full of food. And then the king said to his servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away. Cast him into outer darkness.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called and few are chosen. I like this guy, whoever he is. He's got guts. He's got character. He's got guts. He's got character. He's got principle. We don't. No, we go into our churches and we separate in our mind the Jews. Oh, no. We're not Jewish.

We're Christian. Well, yeah, but, I mean, the Lord laid out the worship of the Jews. He said, you know, in the seventh month, 14th day of the month, you need to meet on that evening and have Feast of Tabernacles. Well, we do Oktoberfest. Is that the same thing? No. And on the 14th day of the first month month we're supposed to meet here and have passover well we do the lord's supper does that count what what's going on here why are we rejecting all

these things i'll tell you why let's look at look into the mind of this fellow that wouldn't put on this garment you know what his attitude was? I'm a Gentile. I ain't no Jew. I'm not wearing that. I have my own identity. I have my own nation. I'm not a Jew. I'm not

dressing like a Jew. I don't want anything to do with that. I'm going to tell you something, friend. That is really a bad attitude toward your heavenly father to say that look i'll take your salvation you know the food's nice i'll attend your wedding but as far as me hey i'm me i'm not you i'm not a Jew I'm a Gentile I keep Christmas I keep Easter I keep all the pagan holidays

and you're just going to have to deal with that bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness oh you believe that if you don't keep the feast you're going to hell you know what if you want to ask a question as ridiculous as that you're going to get your answer someplace else because i don't even want to talk to you

the truth is you're rebellious and you don't appreciate the fact that the seat you're sitting in actually belong to somebody else you are there by the good graces and the mercy of God. We owe him the respect of doing things his way, doing things the way he said to do it, not the way we think is best. We need to dedicate to his way. We need to be thankful. We need to be that poor little Samaritan that ran back from his nine buddies to tell the Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you. That should be us. It's not.

I came in here without, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? I provided you what you need. Yeah, well, that's not me. Well, what is you? You're a lost and beggarly nation, which is not my people. That's who you are.

Is that the way you want it? Tie this guy up and make sure that he can be himself. But he's going to do it out there. This is my wedding. To my daughter being married today or my son don't know which which one it was but you know this is my wedding this is my feast this is my house and we're gonna do things the way I said doing I appreciate that kind of an attitude. Look, I'm afraid to come to my God and say, gee, do we really have to keep the Feast of Tabernacles? You know, if I was the Lord God, I'd look at a person like that and say,

have you ever said that about Christmas? I mean, if we don't keep Passover are we going to hell have you ever said that about the Lord's Supper well there's some people that teach that so maybe that's a bad example but I'm saying that what is the idea that we're just gonna do the least we can do we We're just going to be the best you you could be. Look, I don't know about you. I am trying every day to fall out of love with me. I've never really done me a whole lot of good. And if the Lord invites me where I don't really belong, I appreciate that. If he saves me, though I really don't deserve belong, I appreciate that. If He saves me, though I really

don't deserve it, I appreciate that. If He loves me, even though I'm not His people, I appreciate that. Behold, it's going to be said among those who I said these are not my people, it's going to be said

among them, these are my people. I'm their God. If he accepts us and brings us in, I'll put on any garment he wants. I don't have any ax to grind. I don't need my holidays. I don't need my silly little prayers and my beliefs and all my liturgy

and all my doctrinal statements. I don't need that stuff. I just want to please my God. Friend, you've been invited to a wedding to which you were not invited to begin with. I think you just need to be a little more appreciative of those kind of things.

Friend, our time is gone for now. I'd love to hear from you if you would like to write to me. It's simple as writing to Don at thinkredding.com love to hear your questions and your comments write to me will you alright until I see you again think red ink my friend

bye bye C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you